I can tell you from experience when a circle hook is gut hooked it is nearly impossible to get it out and it does happen......when a J hook is gut hooked a good removal tool will get it out safely every time...i have never failed.

I feel this is spot on. I actually stopped using bridles because they almost always swallowed the circle hooks. If there was some type of a tool that I could stick down inside their mouth and cut the end of the circle hook off, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Why's that bud? Circle hooks is all I've used in 21 years of striper fishing and I use them regularly for chunk. Do you have hook-up issues?

I love circle hooks for live bait since they typically grab it and run. In my experience fishing chunk, the majority of the time that I hook up its a minor tap similar to a eel/perch/catfish... It renders the circle ineffective in that situation. I fished chunk for years with circles waiting for a "run" with little success. It wasn't that many years ago that I found out those little tap tap and drops could be the big girls.

__________________2020 RUN
Boated: 59
Biggest: 41.5"

ALL TIME PBs
Boated in a run: 59 (2020)
Boated in a day: 23 (2020)
Biggest: 42" (2016)

I feel this is spot on. I actually stopped using bridles because they almost always swallowed the circle hooks. If there was some type of a tool that I could stick down inside their mouth and cut the end of the circle hook off, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

x2 on the bridle rigs. Almost every fish landed was gut hooked.

__________________2020 RUN
Boated: 59
Biggest: 41.5"

ALL TIME PBs
Boated in a run: 59 (2020)
Boated in a day: 23 (2020)
Biggest: 42" (2016)

I can tell you from experience when a circle hook is gut hooked it is nearly impossible to get it out and it does happen......when a J hook is gut hooked a good removal tool will get it out safely every time...i have never failed.

I feel this is spot on. I actually stopped using bridles because they almost always swallowed the circle hooks. If there was some type of a tool that I could stick down inside their mouth and cut the end of the circle hook off, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Knipex cutters work great. We use them for cutting 8/0 musky trebles so the cut singles with ease and they're small enough to fit in the bass's mouth easily. I used one on a Rapala treble the other day on a roughly 18 inch Bass